Staff Retreat

So life has been a little crazy this past month, I had planned on blogging about the staff retreat, but haven't had time. :)  Oh well, it's never too late, I suppose! So, since my internet's r e a l l y   s l o w, I won't put more pictures on here, just links, otherwise I'd never get anything else done today!!  Oh, and the picture above is of the active volcano that wasn't too far away from us. :)  Close enough that we could see the lava spewing up, at night and hear the thunder of its rumblings, but far enough away that we couldn't get any pictures of the lava or actually feel the earthquakes, or probably get hit with the lava.  On the way home we saw how smart and prepared they were, they'd dug canyons out, for the lava to flow through, so that it wouldn't destroy everything.  There never was any lava in them, not enough came out of the volcano, so it never reached the roads, but still was an interesting thought. :)  (oh, and mom, I purposely didn't tell you, until after we got back, about the volcano) ;)

The speaker's topic was serving God, but I think I learned more about community and supporting others (which does fall under the topic of serving God, but usually is its own). :)  Right before the retreat had started, I found out that my sister, who was almost 9 months pregnant, had viral meningitis.  This was hard news for me to hear, for a number of reasons:  she's my baby sister, her baby is the first niece/nephew born in my family, and I was too far away to be able to call and find out what was going on.  The cafeteria had wireless and I'd brought my computer, intending to use it to download pictures and video, so that I didn't have to worry about filling up my memory card on the camera.  The first time I took my computer to the cafeteria during free time I got some weird looks, but when I explained what I was doing and why, everyone said that they'd pray.  That was the beginning of being able to live out what a church community should look like, when someone is hurting!  Throughout the day people who'd heard what was going on continued to ask me about my sister and nephew and say that they were praying.  Then the 3rd night we were there, I asked to share with everyone, since most people knew about it, I thought it would be easier than updating one person at a time.  After than, many continued to ask me how they were doing and to pray for them.  This has continued to this day (nearly 2 weeks after my nephew was born, yay!!!) and has been a tremendous support to me.  For the most part it's not THAT hard to be far away from my family, I talk to my mom most days and can talk to my brother-in-law and one of my sisters every day, as well, so I do have communication with people, but I realize, when stuff like this happens, that I REALLY am far away from my family.  But I wasn't far away from family, because I had my friends here, supporting me and praying for me and my family, acting as family. :)

Then of course, there were the pranks that we all pulled. :)  There were about 8 males and 20 some females on the trip. :)  Shoes were stolen from us, clothes taken from them, water tossed on numerous people, faces painted, nearly all happening late at night.  It was great!!  At first the guys were all united and winning, pulling better pranks, but then us females, at first in little groups scattered all over, but then working as one team, were able to overcome the initial advantage the guys had and recover our shoes, etc. :)  Unfortunately, we were all sworn to secrecy, so as not to reveal details of what happened, suffice it to say, we had fun!  And, if you choose to moralize it :) we because a community and worked as a team.

And for those who have gone on a retreat/road trip with me, I DID make cookies, a double batch, that barely made it to the campground. :)  I think there were 5 left or so, by the time we got there!!  Of course, the fact that the driver was driving slow enough that we wanted to get out and push, might have had something to do with it. :)

Anyways, here's some pictures from Facebook (I have tons more, but they're not for public consumption, just those who participated in the retreat! :) )  Staff Retreat album.  And here's the workshop pictures, from when I helped my roommate Diana :)  Theater (don't say I didn't warn you about me looking odd!)

And now, I'm off to color some more :)  I love teaching little kids!!!  (I'm actually working, I suppose, making Adjective Bingo cards)